Category Archives: Kabab / Kabob

Chicken tangri kabab is a famous North Indian chicken kabab where only drumstick of the chiccken is marinated in a yogurt-spice marinade for a longer peroid and then grilled . The difference between chicken tikka/ tandoori chicken with tangri kabab is , in tangri kabab , dry roasted grounded chick pea is used along with green chili paste . These two ingredients make it distinct from tikka or tandoori chicken . Dry roasted grounded chickpea can be substituted with “Besan” or gram flour , but that should be lightly fried before using. Tangri kabab has another different version where minced meat is stuffed inside a pocket made in the drumstick . May be next time I’ll try that too .
Though only drumstick or tangri is used , I prefer taking the whole leg, with thigh too . 🙂

1. Make some slit on the chicken . These cut marks would help the marinade go inside the legs .

2. Pat dry the chicken legs with a kitchen towel before you marinate . Now Marinate with all the ingredients mentioned above . Give coal smoke . For giving coal smoke , take a burning coal in an aluminium foil cup and place it on the bowl of the chicken . Put some oil over the burning coal and cover the entire bowl with a lid . Keep it like this for 10 minutes . Marinate the chicken for at least 12 hours . The more , the better . I did almost 20 hours . Cover the bowls with cling film or plastic and keep in the refrigerator.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 400 FH and bake the chicken for 20 minutes . Then broil another 15-20 minutes .

Enjoy with naan , paratha and raita .. 🙂

Notes :

1. Fry the besan for few minutes until fragrant , but please don’t over fry it . It would make the chicken taste bitter .

This is a truly melt in mouth kind of kabab !! Though Sheekh kababs are authentically made with mince meat but in Bangladesh sheekh kababs are made of thin pieces of beef,skewered in large Sheekh or metal skewer and those spicy pieces of heaven would just melt in your mouth !! Bangladeshi residing Biharis played a vital role in the country’s kabab industry .. Most of the kababs are inspired and introduced by these Biharis !!!! No wonder , that’s the reason , the authentic Behari kabab tastes exactly like our version of Sheekh kabab !!
Before I proceed to the recipe , I’d love to share some important ponts ;

1. Marination is very important . Marinate the meat for at least 24 hours .
2. Tenderize the meat by pounding and applying good amount of green papaya paste or grated green papaya , and don’t forget the skin !!! Take the papaya with skin !!!
3. Generous amount of Mustard oil ( shorishar tel) in the marination !!!!
4. Don’t forget to smoke the meat with coal !!

2. Marinate the meat with papaya paste first then add all the ingredients. Marinate for at least 24 hours . Keep it in the refrigerator .

3. Light a coal completely . It should be all burning . Now place it on a metal or small aluminum bowl . Add this bowl over the bowl of meat . Add ghee all over the coal and cover with a lid to smoke the meat completely . Keep it like this 10-15 minutes .

4. Skew the meat pieces into the skewer . Rub some extra oil over it . I added a little bit of ghee too .

5. Preheat the oven to 400 FH . Now bake the kababs for 20-30 minutes . Broil it another 15- 20 minutes or until get little charred.

Enjoy with paratha , naan or ruti !! Don’t forget the raita !!! 😀

Notes:

1. Don’t skip the smoking part . It gives you the flavor we get in a kabab house .

2. If you use bamboo skewer , then soak the skewers into the water for at least half n hour . That would prevent the blackening of the skewers . 🙂

3. While baking , the water from the meat and oil will come out . Just before broiling just remove the excess juice and oil from the kabab so that you get the perfect look .

Kofta has it’s origin in Central Asia and with the conquest of muslim emperors , it’s being introduced in the Sub-continent . Among the many variations , the most elegant one is undoubtedly Nargisi kofta , where a hard boil egg is stuffed in a layer of ground meat . The British Scotch egg is considered to be inspired by this amazing Mughal delicacy during the reign of British in the Sub-continent .

There are several versions of Nargisi kofta . Sometimes raw grounded keema/ mince is used . Sometimes the keema is boiled with split pea or chick pea and then grounded again to use the kofta . Sometimes the kofta is cooked in gravy , while sometimes it is served dry , without gravy .

Among these various versions , I would love to share the raw mince version and withhout gravy . 🙂

2. Prick the eggs with the sharp edge of knife or toothpick from one side to other , keeping the egg in tact . It will help the eggs not to burst after adding them in the oil . Now take each egg and cover with good amount of keema/ mince . Coat in beaten egg white and deep fry on medium- low flame until done .
Cut in halves lengthwise before you serve . Cut after the kofta cooled down . 🙂

Tips:

1. Don’t wash the keema/ mince for any kabab or kofta . Ask the butcher to wash the meat first then make a keema of it . If the keema is washed , the kabab will fall apart after putting them in oil to fry . Washing of mince also degrades the texture and flavor of kababs . It is a very important note to remember .
If the keema is washed , you will need more binding agent so that it does not fall apart after adding them in the oil . But the more binding agent like bread , flour , besan , cornflour you use , the more it gets tough .

2. To avoid the bursting of eggs in the oil , as I said earlier , always prick the eggs with a knife or toothpick from one side to another before you enclose the egg in the mince patty . And also try to cover the eggs with good amount of mince because after adding the kofta to the oil , the meat tends to shrink down , so if there is not enough mince around the eggs , the mince will fall apart . 🙂

3. Don’t use egg yolks to coat them before frying . Using of egg whites only will help the oil to be clean other wise the oil you are using will get dark .

4. It is always preferred to keep the koftas in the fridger for at least 1 -2 hour before frying them in oil .

Shami kabab is usually made with mince meat and yellow split pea , boiled and blended together to give the shape of tikiya or kabab . The name of the kabab , “Shami” involves many stories . In Urdu / Hindi or Punjabi , Sham means evening. So a version states ,the kabab is named so ,as it is preferred to be consumed in the evening as a snack .
On the other hand , some other version states , in Urdu , Sham means “Syria’, the Middle_Eastern country , pointing the origin of the kabab .

Shami kabab , is no doubt one of my most favorite kabab , I can enjoy any time of the day !! 🙂 I experimented it with Tuna . Came out just perfect . Before , I used to make tuna kabab with tuna and potato , but I opted potato to make this shami kabab . Yellow split pea or channa/ boot daal is used to give the exact same flavor and effect of that of shami kabab made with mince meat .

1. Drain all the water from the tuna. Squezze hard to remove any extra water.
2. Drain the water from the chaana daal and boil . Dry out the water . The daal should be intact but fully boiled . Now blend the daal in the blender . Don’t put any water in it . The blended daal should be dry .
2. Now combine all the ingredients together. Start with 1 beaten egg , if feels dry add another egg .
3. Shape into kababs and deep fry on medium low heat.

Cooking Tips:
You can store the kababs in deep fridge for a quite a long time.If you want to store, then don’t fry them.After shaping keep them in a box and refrigerate. Fry them and serve whenever you need.

Kabob- e- Jujeh literally means grilled chicken and it consists of grilled pieces of chicken . This is one of the most popular kabob ( Persian accent for kabab) in Iran , often served with rice or Naan – e Lavash, a special kind of flat bread . Jujeh is typically ,like most other Persian kabobs , not spicy at all . Very few ingredients are used but the use of reasonable amount of saffron is noticeable , that being responsible for that marvelous golden look of jujeh ! As I said earlier , only few ingredients are needed for this beautiful kabob , onion , lemon juice , white or black pepper and saffron being the main ingredients . But to make it more tender , juicy and flavorful I added few secret ingredients too . Those are mayonnaise , orange zest and orange juice . 🙂 Usually breast meat are preferred for this kabob but you can use both breast and thigh meat, but should be boneless . I used breast meat and they turned out too good !!

1. Marinate the chicken pieces with all the ingredients and cover the bowl with plastic . Keep it in the refrigerator for at least 10 hours . The longer , the better . preferably 24 hours marination .

2. Give coal smoke just before you are ready to prepare it . For that lit the charcoal very well , then place it on a metal or small aluminium foil cup . Place it over the marinated meat and add some oil or ghee over the charcoal . Cover the bowl of the meat to lock the smoke inside . Leave it like that for 10 minutes .

3. Thread the chicken pieces onto metal skewers and grill until the chicken pieces are well-cooked . I did it in oven . For that bake in a pre-heated oven for 15 minutes at 400 FH and then broil for another 12-12 minutes .

I love raw banana . My mom has so many special recipes with raw banana and this kabab is one of them , the specialty being the use of the skin too . Many of us make raw banana kabab and I saw most of them throwing away the skin!!! What a wastage !!! The skin being the most delicious part !!!People throwing away the skin complains about the sticky enzyme comes from the raw banana and think that might make the skin taste bitter . But it certainly has a technique to get rid of bitterness of that sticky enzyme and that is to boil the banana with turmeric and salt . Turmeric and salt both help to get rid of the bitterness of that sticky enzyme of raw banana .

Other ingredients :
salt and turmeric to boil the banana
Oil to fry the kababs

Procedure:

1. Boil the bananas with turmeric and salt . Throw away the water and peel the skin from the banana . Cut the skin in small pieces and blend them with grated ginger , garlic . Mash the bananas smoothly and mix with the blended skin , add the other ingredients , fried onion , chili powder , cumin powder , garam masala/ kabab masala powder , salt .

2. Now add the beaten egg in it . Don’t use any other binder like flour or gram flour . Only egg is enough for binding . If you use other binder , the kabab won’t taste good at all . After mixing the egg , you may find it bit soft to make shape . Don’t worry . Keep it in the fridge for a while like 15/ 20 minutes . Then you will find it easier to shape .

3. Heat oil in a fry pan and fry the kababs on medium low heat . Better to keep the kababs in fridge before you fry them .

Enjoy !!!

Notes :

1. Don’t use any binding like flour , bread or cornstarch . If you do so , the kabab won’t taste good at all .

2. Fry them on medium heat . It should not be deep fried but you need enough oil to fry them oil . Don’t fry them in small quantity of oil .

Gola or Lola kabab, a kind of rolled meat ball , are originated in Kandahar, Afganistan by the Poshtuns ; but it’s incredible softness and melt-in- mouth kind made it so popular , even beyond the boundary of it’s origin . The shape of the kabab resembles to that of the cannons or “gola”s , that is why it is named gola kabab. Gola kababs can be pan fried in a very little oil or can be grilled on charcoal or even baked and broiled in a oven . When grilled on charcoal , the golas of minced meat are put around the skewer , tied around with a thread , because unlike boti or sheekh kabab , only minced meat are used and if they are not tied with thread , the kabab may fall apart . For gola kabab , not only minced meat is used , the meat should be double minced , i.e, the mince meat will be beaten / blended again with spices before they are put on charcoal or pan fried . 🙂 Many uses binding agent like egg or besan( gram flour) in the recipe, but trust me , you won’t get the authentic taste if you use those binding ingredients . The kababs tend to fall apart and that’s the beauty .

There are some very important notes to be remembered for the perfect gola kabab . I will discuss them at the end of the recipe.

Grind them together into a fine powder . We need all , the whole quantity for this recipe . I skipped one spice, which is known as “filfil daraj” or long pepper , since I couldn’t find them in my nearby grocery . If you get them, take only 1 in this masala.

Procedure:

1. Put the minced beef in a food processor or blender with all the ingredients mentioned in “ingredients to be mixed with the mince”. Don’t add any water . beat / blend well .

2. Add 1 tbl spoon of yogurt and special masala in it . Don’t take the water of the yogurt . try to drain out the water from it before adding with the mince .

3. Smoke the mince with charcoal for five minutes . For that lit the charcoal very well , place it in a small bowl and put that small bowl on the mince . Then add ghee to the charcoal to create the smoke . cover the bowl with a lid and smoke the mince for 5 minutes.

4. Shape the kababs And keep it in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours . Don’t put them in the deep chamber. Keeping them in refrigerator for a longer time will help the kababs to get firmer and also the spices will get into very well .

For the grill

5. For Pan frying , take a little oil to fry . At first , fry them on medium low heat for 10 minutes then increase the heat and fry another five minutes . Don’t over fry or else the meat will get tight . Be vary careful while flipping over . Try to flip one by one carefully , otherwise they may fall apart .

You may bake the kababs in oven for 15 minutes at 375 FH and then broil another 5 minutes or until done .

Notes:

1. Don’t wash the mince . So before making the keema or mince , wash your meat well . There should be no water in the mince .

2. I used grated ginger, garlic and papaya to avoid extra water .

3. The kababs tend to fall apart , so fry them gently . Don’t try to turn them over again and again . After taking them out from the oven , take out the skewer carefully , or else u may end up with broken kababs. If you are afraid of broken kababs , you may tie a thread around the kabab before frying and grilling .

1. As I said earlier , you can make them ahead of time . In that case after shaping and coating , place them in a box and keep the box in your deep-fridge chamber . Just take them out and fry , whenever needed.

2. If you want to serve immediately after making , then after shaping and coating , keep them in the fridge for a while before frying. It would surely give you a better look and taste . 🙂

The word ‘jali” refers to net. The outer texture of this Old Dhaka special kabab has that net effect by using a special technique. Simple but needs perfection!!!! The first time I made jali kabab , looked like a “kabab stuffed fried egg” !!!! 😦 I learnt from this error that the egg mixture should be thin to make those jali !!!!!Failure is the pillar of success, indeed!!!!!!!!!!!

1. Mix all the ingredients together other than the ingredients mentioned for coating and frying.

2. Shape them and keep them in the refrigerator for half an hour. That would make the kabab firm.

3. Dip the kabab into egg , then coat them lightly with bread crumbs and then again dip them into the egg and deep fry . Take some egg mixture in your hand and lightly sprinkle them in circular motion into the oil to create that net affect .